It is well known to provide a suspension for a steerable road wheel of a vehicle comprising a steering knuckle rotatable about a steering axis to allow steering of the wheel, a suspension arm having connection means at two spaced apart positions at an inner end thereof for pivotably connecting the suspension arm to a sprung part of the vehicle such that it can rotate about a pivot axis that is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the motor vehicle, and being pivotably connected at an outer end thereof to a lower end of the steering knuckle, and a substantially vertical suspension strut pivotably connected at a lower end thereof to the steering knuckle and resiliently connected at an upper end thereof to said sprung part. Such suspension arrangements are often referred to as McPherson strut suspensions.
It is a problem with such a prior art suspension arrangement that it is difficult to arrange for the steering actuator to be positioned close to the pivot axis of the suspension arm without causing interference between the suspension arm and the tie rod. If sufficient clearance is left to avoid this interference, undesirable levels of bump steer can be caused.
Although it is possible to get the steering actuator close to the pivot axis of the suspension arm by using a suspension arm that is of a non-planar configuration this results in the arm being weaker than a planar one, and such a non-planar suspension arm is more expensive and difficult to produce.
It is an object of this invention to provide a suspension arrangement for a motor vehicle that utilizes a substantially planar suspension arm while producing a desired amount of bump steer.